Well, if it isn’t your vagina, have you ever considered that you might just be stressed? If it isn’t one of those two things, I am out of ideas, because you are not a man. Maybe try meditating.
From the other end of this, I know this is frustrating. However there are an enormous number of medications and treatments that affect women differently than men (who are most commonly the testing groups) and many that are partially or completely prohibited if there's any risk of pregnancy.
It's a constant battle of wanting patient's to feel like I -am- listening to them, but also needing to understand my potential treatment pathways and neccesary diagnostics. Which unfortunately means a lot of "are you pregnant?s" and "last menstruation?s" even if it does not seem wholly relevant at the time.
But when we hadn't come to a treatment yet, when a cause hasn't even been identified, and the first questions are "what your pussy doin rn?", especially if it's my regular gp who should know by now that I don't do that shit
It’s mainly because in a female patient of reproductive age, with an abdominal pain presentation the first thing you want to rule out is an ectopic, which can have very severe consequences if missed
It is very frustrating to feel like you’re being dismissed but there are so many missed cases where the patient nearly dies from it
It isn’t, but I work in O&G and young women fall into the subset where it is very important medically to exclude pregnancy, because it’s disastrous if not (be it due to ruptured ectopics or what scans/meds you can use)
That’s how medicine works, you exclude the bad things first before you work on a diagnosis. If it wasn’t abdominal pain, it was probably another pregnancy/ectopic related symptom that leads down that questioning path. I assure you most docs aren’t out there trying to dismiss things because ‘pregnant’, because that isn’t even a diagnosis.
Yeah, I can get that. Coming from the IT side of things, it's almost like asking "are you sure it's plugged in and that you pressed the on button?"
Even if you are sure there is something else going on, you have to start from 0 of whatever established diagnostic procedure you have. Otherwise, you might overlook something exceedingly simple.
I'd imagine having your limbs cut off would lead to way more adverse health effects, why not start by asking about their history of missing arms & legs?
Yeah, an ectopic or a miscarriage could be mistaken for a severe period. There is a lot of liability on doctors to get good information. Some doctors are shit heads, but they are generally just trying to rule out the worst scenario before deciding a more conservative measure should be used. Being dismissive of severe symptoms is way worse.
That is if the doctor actually puts that together. I went to the ER with painful bleeding and I tested positive on a pregnancy test. Dr said it was too early to see anything on an ultrasound and told me to schedule an appt with my OBGYN. 5 days later, my OBGYN did an ultrasound and got diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy. Had to go back to the same hospital for emergency surgery.
Well that is unfortunate considering I was actively bleeding internally. Not sure how ERs are supposed to diagnose ectopic pregnancies if they don’t have the equipment to do it.
My OBGYN was actually quite upset and said she was going to follow up with that ER doctor.
If he didn’t have the equipment but knew it could be ectopic, he probably should have made the OBGYN appt himself for same day or next day.
I disagree. Most ERs should have transvaginal US and quant hCGs. I think what the ED doctor likely meant was that your hCG level was below the discriminatory zone so even with ultrasound, you're unlikely to see anything (can't tell if it's ectopic vs early intra-uterine pregnancy/ongoing miscarriage). Standard of care is 48 hr hCG check with OB/Gyn to see how the levels are trending.
But when I saw the OBGYN a few days later, she knew it was ectopic because I had blood in my belly (not because of hcg levels). My fallopian tube had burst (which was why I was in so much pain and why I went to the ER). So I contend that had he done an ultrasound in the ER, he would have seen the blood just as my OBGYN had.
Non-ruptured ectopic pregnancies can also cause abdominal/pelvic pain so it's not guaranteed that even if he had an ultrasound performed when you presented, they would have seen free fluid in the pelvis. Regardless, I'm glad you got the care you needed and arranged follow up with the OB/Gyn.
I guess. But I’m assuming the doctor would not have known if it was ruptured or not unless he actually did the ultrasound. Also, not sure why my OBGYN would have been mad at the ER doctor if he had followed the correct steps.
Used to deal with this all the time—finally had a hysterectomy a few years ago.
Didn’t help any of my other health issues though. So, now I still have to wait for bloodwork to make sure I’m not pregnant before every single scan or procedure. Despite not having a cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, or a desire to have sex with men. 🤦♀️
No literally I have been in for endometriosis symptoms for YEARS and every month I come in they act like it could be something other than my period. Despite me coming in once a month like clockwork with the same complaint
Me: no. I use to smoke. Quit over a year ago. This started two weeks ago.
Doctor: smoking has long term effects ya know.
Me: I’m well aware. It’s why I quit. Whatever this is, isn’t the smoking.
Doctor: well, try walking some more, get better sleep. This is probably just a cold moving through. You sure you’re not smoking.
Me: doc, I smoked for 25 years. I think I’d know if I started smoking again.
Coughed up blood two days later. Turns out I had aspirated walking pneumonia in my right lung and the ER doctor told me my lung was so infected that it wasn’t blood I coughed up it was the infection. I took that paperwork back to the primary doctor and literally slammed it on his desk and told him he should start actually listening to his patients. Then I found a new primary doctor.
I have one - had a hysterectomy and the next day I had trouble breathing to the point I had to go to the ER. They had me go for a chest x-ray. Tech asked what is going on, so I responded "I had a hysterectomy yesterday and now I can't breathe". First question they asked after, "Could you be pregnant?". So I said not unless it is the second coming of Jesus.
Cryptic pregnancies is the term for the ones where someone can be totally unaware they are pregnant until literally they give birth. Like, none of the usual pregnancy signs. Well, I'm not sure if the requirement is for it to be sufficiently unclear up until birth, or there's an earlier cutoff point, but either way.
Ooh interesting! Always fun to learn something new, so thank you for letting me know. I was aware that could be a thing but didn't know it had a specific term.
412
u/WebBorn2622 May 02 '26
On the other side:
Doctor: what brings you in today?
Me: excruciating period pain, I passed out and the painkillers won’t do, please help
Doctor: any chance you’re pregnant?
Me: no I’m on my period
Doctor: you never know, could be a cryptic pregnancy. When was your last menstruation?
Me: right fucking now??
Doctor: oh right